Science news

• Life in Space, 'Star Trek' Tech & the Future of Space Exploration

  01-10-2016 17:30
  
  Kris Brown, of NASA's office of communications, moderated the panel. The first question concerned "Star Trek," which is celebrating its 50thanniversary this year: Just how did science fiction like "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" influence the astronauts, astrophysicists and other space explorers who grew up watching?
  
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• 'Golden Record' Sent to Aliens Now Available on Earth

  01-10-2016 17:30
  
  In 1977, NASA launched two spacecraft that would venture far out into deep space, each carrying a golden record with a message from Earth for any aliens the vessels might encounter. A new Kickstarter campaign is making copies of that golden record available to the public. Other than the two copies on NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft, only 10 copies exist, most of which are on display in NASA facilities.
  
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• A Tough Row to Hoe for Early Martian Microbes

  01-10-2016 17:30
  
  "The [Mars Science Laboratory on the Curiosity rover] was never prepared for looking for signs of life," she said. "The Curiosity rover's instruments are designed so that scientists could answer the questions of whether it's possible for life to have existed in the past and whether any traces would be detectable. The challenges for living things on Mars started billions of years ago, when the planet, for whatever reason, lost its magnetic field, Eigenbrode said.
  
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• 1st Mars Colonists Should Be 'Prepared to Die,' Elon Musk Says

  01-10-2016 17:30
  
  The first people who fly with SpaceX to Mars should be OK with the possibility that the decision could cost them their lives, company founder and CEO Elon Musk said. SpaceX aims to ferry 1 million people to the Red Planet over the next 50 to 100 years using the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), a rocket-spaceship combo that Musk unveiled Tuesday (Sept. 27) during a talk at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico.
  
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• Rosetta spacecraft helped us 'dig into our past' and understand where we came from

  01-10-2016 17:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Europe's comet-chasing space probe Rosetta may be lost to us for good, but the discoveries it made during its 12-year mission studying a distant, icy comet will help us unravel mysteries of life and the universe for decades to come.
  
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• 'Comets are time capsules': How the Rosetta space probe helped unlock mysteries of the universe

  01-10-2016 17:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Europe's comet-chasing space probe Rosetta may be lost to us for good, but the discoveries it made during its 12-year mission studying a distant, icy comet will help us unravel mysteries of life and the universe for decades to come.
  
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• Congo commission expects presidential vote delay to Dec 2018

  01-10-2016 16:20
  By Aaron Ross KINSHASA (Reuters) - The president of Democratic Republic of Congo's electoral commission said on Saturday that he expects the presidential election, originally scheduled for this November, to be delayed until December 2018, lawmakers present at his speech said. The announcement is likely to stoke political tensions after at least 50 people died last week in the capital Kinshasa in clashes between protesters and security forces over accusations that President Joseph Kabila is delib
  
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• UAE military vessel damaged in 'incident' off coast of Yemen

  01-10-2016 15:42
  A United Arab Emirates military vessel was damaged in a strategic Red Sea shipping lane off the coast of Yemen on Saturday but there were no injuries to its crew, the UAE military said. Hundreds of Emirati soldiers in a Saudi-led coalition have been fighting Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis who control the capital and training Yemeni troops in the port of Aden to help rebuild a state loyal to exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. "General Command of the Armed Forces said one of its leased vessels
  
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• Hawaiian bees are first on US endangered species list

  01-10-2016 15:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Seven species of yellow-faced bee native to Hawaii are the first bees to be added to the US list of endangered species.
  
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• UAE warship damaged in 'incident' off coast of Yemen

  01-10-2016 15:04
  A United Arab Emirates warship was damaged in a strategic Red Sea shipping lane off the coast of Yemen on Saturday but there were no injuries to its crew, the UAE military said. Hundreds of Emirati soldiers in a Saudi-led coalition have been fighting Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis who control the capital and training Yemeni troops in the port of Aden to help rebuild a state loyal to exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. "General Command of the Armed Forces said one of its leased vessels suffered
  
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• Cutest Face-Plant Ever? Baby Panda Falls Off Stage

  01-10-2016 15:03
  
  Roly-poly can be a plus for a giant panda tumbling around in the wild. As soon as the little furball took a nosedive off the low platform, a staff member scooped him or her up and placed the cub back on the stage.
  
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• New Jersey Train Crash: Could Safety Tech Have Averted Disaster?

  01-10-2016 15:01
  
  Officials in New Jersey are still piecing together what caused a horrific train crash in Hoboken yesterday (Sept. 29) that killed one person and injured more than 100 others. While it's not yet known if the crash was caused by operator error or mechanical failure, there are technologies available that are designed to halt a train during an emergency. The train did not slow as it barreled into Hoboken Terminal at 8:45 a.m. ET, and its momentum carried it through the barrier at the end of the trac
  
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• New chemicals may be less toxic, safer for Arctic wildlife: researcher

  01-10-2016 13:30 via cbc.ca
  
  The new chemicals are meant to replace Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) that are linked to serious health issues like diabetes and cancer.
  
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• Cheetah trade: Nations to suppress social media enticement

  01-10-2016 10:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Arab nations join forces with African countries in a bid to suppress the illegal live trade in cheetahs, with a special focus on social media.
  
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• Chinese navy ships arrive in Myanmar for five-day visit

  01-10-2016 05:11
  Two Chinese navy ships have arrived in Myanmar's main city of Yangon for a five-day visit, state media said on Saturday, the latest move by Beijing to reinforce military ties with its strategically-located southern neighbour. China has been on a diplomatic offensive since the government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi came to power in April, aiming to forge good ties with the resource-rich country. Suu Kyi visited China in August, where President Xi Jinping told her he wanted to e
  
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• Co2 record at mauna loa, the music video: The sounds of climate change

  01-10-2016 03:41
  Two scientists put the carbon dioxide record at Mauna Loa to music, and made a music video of climate change.
  
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• Giant Thai insect reveals clues to human heart disease

  01-10-2016 03:40
  An electron microscope has been used to capture the first three-dimensional image of a tiny filament, or strand, of an essential muscle that the palm-sized water bug Lethocerus indicus uses to fly. This image shows, for the first time, the individual molecules in the filament in a relaxed state, which is necessary to re-extend muscles.
  
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• From Pokemon go to birdwatching: How we express our inner hunter

  01-10-2016 03:40
  Interested in birding or wildlife photography? Enjoy playing Pokemon Go and catching imaginary creatures? If so, you may simply be expressing your inner hunter. So says a new study from Vladimir Dinets, a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, research assistant professor of psychology.
  
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• Feds list 7 Hawaii bee species as endangered, a first in US

  01-10-2016 01:19
  HONOLULU (AP) — Federal authorities added seven yellow-faced bee species, Hawaii's only native bees, for protection under the Endangered Species Act Friday, a first for any bees in the United States.
  
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• Is red tape holding back the financial tech industry in Canada?

  01-10-2016 01:13 via cbc.ca
  
  The Bank of Canada is experimenting with "regulatory sandboxes" to promote innovation, but venture capitalist Ray Sharma says that regulation is holding Canada's financial technology industry back.
  
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